The Arrogance of Our Enemies

For those of you who haven't heard, the FBI is looking for two men in a photo posted at Michelle Malkin's site, among others, who took multiple trips on Washington State Ferries and who seemed to take an unusual interest in the structure and workings of the boats. So unusual that they created enough suspicion that crew members snapped the picture that got the FBI looking. The Seattle Post-Intellect refused to publish the photo, under the pretense that it would violate them men's civil rights. No such reluctance for the Duke LaCrosse players, but hey, they were obviously guilty, right? So in today's Seattle Times, we get treated to this offensive piece of crap:

For Arabs and Muslims across the Puget Sound area, a rise in the nation's threat level or a bombing halfway around the world often can mark a period of unease.

Yeah. The same is true for ALL of us.

In the years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, leaders in that community say incidents of profiling and harassment have ebbed and flowed -- increasing when Muslims are linked to news of the day.

There are two appropriate resonses to this. The first is to cut to the chase and call BULLSHIT right now, since much of the Puget Sound is populated by liberal nutroots far to busy wallowing in their own self-righteous guilt over being white to bother profiling anyone else. The second would be to say in a world where acts of violence, generally by exploding things, are committed by middle-easterners on an almost daily basis, common sense would dictate some extra scutiny and yes (gasp!) profiling.

Now the FBI's release of photographs of two men of unknown origin, who the agency says were observed acting suspiciously aboard as many as six different Washington ferry routes in recent weeks, is creating new worries in the community.

If their origin is unknown, then why are the arab-americans worried?

Muslim- and Arab-American leaders are upset that the FBI didn't consult them -- as it has done in other instances -- before releasing the photos on the Internet and to news organizations. They worry that the action may fracture the relationship the agency and the community have carefully built.

EXCUSE ME??? We have to ask self-appointed representatives of a community if they know some one first??? How would we know who to ask if their origin is unknown???

The FBI has stressed that the release of the photos is a rare move, taken only after it had exhausted other efforts to identify the men. The agency also has said the men's actions could be innocuous, but it needs to question them.

Maybe the FBI did not come with its hat in its hand because it did not know who to ask??? Or maybe they simply woke up and realized that the caliphate has not yet been established and they don't have to ask any certain segment of the population before publishing photos of persons they'd like to talk to!

The photos were snapped by a ferry captain last month after crew members alerted him to suspicious activity. The men seemed inordinately interested in the operation of the vessel, took photographs of the interiors of the boats and went into areas tourists and commuters don't normally go, the FBI has said. The agency has received many tips but has not yet found the men.

Yep. Typical tourist activity. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Dozens of Muslims and Arabs have complained to community leaders about the photographs. The fallout has led to a meeting planned today between Muslim- and Arab-American community leaders and law-enforcement officials.

"We need to get some type of apology from them and figure out how to get back to where we were," said Rita Zawaideh, head of the Arab-American Community Coalition.

WTF? I mean, WTF??? Excuse me? Where's my apology for your people flying planes in skyscrapers in NYC? Who the Hell do you think you are to come to my country and act all indignant when "your" people behave badly and it reflects on all of you??

Community leaders also expect to raise questions about another recent incident. On Aug. 12, leaders say half a dozen men of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent were stopped and questioned for up to six hours as they left a ferry in Seattle following a trip to the Olympic Peninsula. Those men contacted Zawaideh to report the incident as profiling.

What were they doing that got them stopped? I'm fairly certain that the authorities didn't question them for shits and giggles. They really have other things to do than harrass people for no reason at all.

David Gomez, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Seattle office, said he was aware of an incident in which five or six ferry passengers were questioned, but wasn't clear whether it was the same one.

Zawaideh said she met with FBI officials about the August incident three days before the agency released the photos of the two men. But the FBI didn't bring up that subject.

Which, the last I looked, was their prerogative. That whole "Don't discuss ongoing investigations with people who don't need to know" stuff.

"Why not ask us then and we would have had a way to ask people in the community," she said.

Maybe they don't trust you. That whole 'taquilya' thing kinda puts in doubt anything that might tumble from your lips, doncha know?

Gomez said the agency needs to address certain sensitive issues, but "people in those communities have to get over this sensitivity toward feeling victimized."

Keep speaking sense like that, and you'll get assigned to some unpleasant duty soon.

Many passengers have been stopped and questioned recently, as the ferry system has stepped up security once the FBI concluded the men might be watching the system. The stops are based on activities, not skin color, Gomez said.

The Horror!

Two days ago, a Seattle Times photographer, who is white, was stopped and questioned after taking photographs near the Mukilteo ferry terminal.

Go figure.

The FBI didn't take the photos of the two men to the Arab- and Muslim-American community because the agency doesn't know if the men are Middle Eastern, Gomez added.

Apparently, the community did, hence the outrage.

"That seems potentially prejudicial to me, and in some ways worse than simply putting [the photos] out the way we did," Gomez said. "It is not us saying these guys look Middle Eastern."

Speaking sense, using logic? No future in the government for you, Gomez.

Zawaideh countered: "They're not saying these men are Arabs, but insinuating they are."

Because I said so. Don't worry about corroboration. Its just the man, being prejudicial.

This all comes at a time when some local Muslim and Arab-American leaders say they've seen a new spike in discrimination complaints.

Because they know that they can effectively blind us with them.

The concerns over profiling following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had begun to ease about three years ago, they say. But with each new incident tied to Muslims or Arabs -- bombings in the London subway or a raising of the terror alert -- has come a rash of new complaints.

Maybe if another group was behind this asshatery, they wouldn't be subject to scrutiny.

Both Zawaideh and S. Arsalan Bukhari, president of the Seattle chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), say their organizations have been receiving more reports lately involving allegations of discrimination.

CAIR can kiss my sausage-eating ass. They simply are the advanced unit for the caliphate-hunting wanna-bes who are busy blowing things up the world over. Here's a clue for you, you rock-worshipping savages: If God wanted the rest of us dead, he wouldn't need you to blow us up or chop off our heads. Being the ruler of the Universe does have its perks.

Bukhari said he's heard of delays at the border, as well as cases of people being asked questions at the airport and searched so thoroughly they missed their flights.

Like my lily-white, multi-generation American self who was singled out for the TSA's 'special attention' two years ago when I flew out of Sea-Tac back to Michiganistan for my father's funeral? Nope. Your plantive bleats didn't even budge the needle on the Give-A-Damn-O-Meter.

Aziz Junejo, who hosts a cable TV show on Islam and who writes a column from the Islamic perspective for The Seattle Times, said a group of Muslim kids who were planning a trip to the Olympic Mountains this weekend phoned to ask if he thought they should take the trip.

And?

"I said: 'I would stay off the ferry if I were you.' "

What does he know that we don't?